Self -Determining Haiti
BY
JAMES WELDON JOHNSON
Four articles reprinted from The Nation embodying
a report of an investigation made for
THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF
COLORED PEOPLE
Together with Official Documents
25 cents a copy
University of California • Berkeley
Copyright, 1920
By THE NATION, Inc.
FOREWORD
THE articles and documents in this pamphlet were
printed in The Nation during the summer of 1920.
They revealed for the first time to the world the nature of
the United States' imperialistic venture in Haiti. While,
owing to the censorship, the full story of this fundamental
departure from American traditions has not yet been told,
it appears at the time of this writing, October, 1920, that
"pitiless publicity" for our sandbagging of a friendly and
inoffensive neighbor has been achieved. The report of
Major-General George Barnett, commandant of the Marine
Corps during the first four years of the Haitian occupation,
just issued, strikingly confirms the facts set forth by The
Nation and refutes the denials of administration officials
and their newspaper apologists. It is in the hope that by
spreading broadly the truth about what has happened in
Haiti under five years of American occupation The Nation
may further contribute toward removing a dark blot from
the American escutcheon, that this pamphlet is issued.
Self-Determining Haiti
By JAMES WELDON JOHNSON
I. THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION
TO know the reasons for the present political situation
in Haiti, to understand why the United States landed
and has for five years maintained military forces in that
country, why some three thousand Haitian men, women, and
children have been shot down by American rifles and ma
chine guns, it is necessary, among other things, to know
that the National City Bank of New York is very much
interested in Haiti. It is necessary to know that the Na
tional City Bank controls the National Bank of Haiti and
is the depository for all of the Haitian national funds that
are being collected by American officials, and that Mr. R. L.
Farnham, vice-president of the National City Bank, is vir
tually the representative of the State Department in matters
relating to the island republic. Most Americans have the
opinion — if they have any opinion at all on the subject —
that the United States was forced, on purely humane
grounds, to intervene in the black republic because of the
tragic coup d'etat which resulted in the overthrow and death
of President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam and the execution of
the political prisoners confined at Port-au-Prince, July 27-
28, 1915; and that this government has been compelled to
keep a military force in Haiti since that time to pacify the
country and maintain order.
The fact is that for nearly a year before forcible inter
vention on the part of the United States this government
was seeking to compel Haiti to submit to "peaceable" inter
vention. Toward the close of 1914 the United States noti
fied the government of Haiti that it was disposed to recog
nize the newly-elected president, Theodore Davilmar, as soon
as a Haitian commission would sign at Washington "satis
factory protocols" relative to a convention with the United
States on the model of the Dominican-American Convention.
On December 15, 19 ,.4, the Haitian government, through
its Secretary of Foreign Affairs, replied : "The Government
of the Republic of Haiti would consider itself lax in its duty
to the United States and to itself if it allowed the least
doubt to exist of its irrevocable intention not to accept any
control of the administration of Haitian affairs by a foreign
Power." On December 19, the United States, through its le
gation at Port-au-Prince, replied, that in expressing its
willingness to do in Haiti what had been done in Santo
Domingo it "was actuated entirely by a disinterested desire
to give assistance."
Two months later, the Theodore government was over
thrown by a revolution and Vilbrun Guillaume was elected
president. Immediately afterwards there arrived at Port-
au-Prince an American commission from Washington — the
Ford mission. The commissioners were received at the
National Palace and attempted to take up the discussion of
the convention that had been broken off in December, 1914.
However, they lacked full powers and no negotiations were
entered into. After several days, the Ford mission sailed
for the United States. But soon after, in May, the United
States sent to Haiti Mr. Paul Fuller, Jr., with the title
Envoy Extraordinary, on a special mission to apprise the
Haitian government that the Guillaume administration
would not be recognized by the American government unless
Haiti accepted and signed the project of a convention which
he was authorized to present. After examining the pro
ject the Haitian government submitted to the American
commission a counter-project, formulating the conditions
under which it would be possible to accept the assistance of
the United States. To this counter-project Mr. Fuller pro
posed certain modifications, some of which were accepted by
the Haitian government. On June 5, 1915, Mr. Fuller ac
knowledged the receipt of the Haitian communication re
garding these modifications, and sailed from Port-au-Prince.
Before any further discussion of the Fuller project be
tween the two governments, political incidents in Haiti led
rapidly to the events of July 27 and 28. On July 27 Presi
dent Guillaume fled to the French Legation, and on the same
day took place a massacre of the political prisoners in the
prison at Port-au-Prince. On the morning of July 28 Presi
dent Guillaume was forcibly taken from French Legation
and killed. On the afternoon of July 28 an American man-
of-war dropped anchor in the harbor of Port-au-Prince and
landed American forces. It should be borne in mind that
6
through all of this the life of not a single American citizen
had been taken or jeopardized.
The overthrow of Guillaume and its attending conse
quences did not constitute the cause of American interven
tion in Haiti, but merely furnished the awaited opportunity.
Since July 28, 1915, American military forces have been in
control of Haiti. These forces have been increased until
there are now somewhere near three thousand Americans
under arms in the republic. From the very first, the atti
tude of the Occupation has been that it was dealing with a
conquered territory. Haitian forces were disarmed, mili
tary posts and barracks were occupied, and the National
Palace was taken as headquarters for the Occupation. After
selecting a new and acceptable president for the country,
steps were at once taken to compel the Haitian government
to sign a convention in which it virtually foreswore its inde
pendence. This was accomplished by September 16, 1915;
and although the terms of this convention provided for the
administration of the Haitian customs by American civilian
officials, all the principal custom houses of the country had
been seized by military force and placed in charge of Ameri
can Marine officers before the end of August. The disposi
tion of the funds collected in duties from the time of the
military seizure of the custom houses to the time of their
administration by civilian officials is still a question concern
ing which the established censorship in Haiti allows no dis
cussion.
It is interesting to note the wide difference between the
convention which Haiti was forced to sign and the con
vention which was in course of diplomatic negotiation at
the moment of intervention. The Fuller convention asked
little of Haiti and gave something, the Occupation conven
tion demands everything of Haiti and gives nothing. The
Occupation convention is really the same convention which
the Haitian government peremptorily refused to discuss in
December, 1914, except that in addition to American control
of Haitian finances it also provides for American control of
the Haitian military forces. The Fuller convention con
tained neither of these provisions. When the United States
found itself in a position to take what it had not even dared
to ask, it used brute force and took it. But even a conven
tion which practically deprived Haiti of its independence
was found not wholly adequate for the accomplishment of
all that was contemplated. The Haitian constitution still
offered some embarrassments, so it was decided that Haiti
must have a new constitution. It was drafted and presented
to the Haitian assembly for adoption. The assembly balked
— chiefly at the article in the proposed document removing
the constitutional disability which prevented aliens from
owning land in Haiti. Haiti had long considered the denial
of this right to aliens as her main bulwark against over
whelming economic exploitation; and it must be admitted
that she had better reasons than the several states of the
United States that have similar provisions.
The balking of the assembly resulted in its being dis
solved by actual military force and the locking of doors of
the Chamber. There has been no Haitian legislative body
since. The desired constitution was submitted to a plebi
scite by a decree of the President, although such a method
of constitutional revision was clearly unconstitutional. Un
der the circumstances of the Occupation the plebiscite was,
of course, almost unanimous for the desired change, and the
new constitution was promulgated on June 18, 1918. Thus
Haiti was given a new constitution by a flagrantly unconsti
tutional method. The new document contains several funda
mental changes and includes a "Special Article" which de
clares :
All the acts of the Government of the United States during
its military Occupation in Haiti are ratified and confirmed.
No Haitian shall be liable to civil or criminal prosecution for
any act done by order of the Occupation or under its authority.
The acts of the courts martial of the Occupation, without,
however, infringing on the right to pardon, shall not be subject
to revision.
The acts of the Executive Power (the President) up to the
promulgation of the present constitution are likewise ratified
and confirmed.
The above is the chronological order of the principal steps
by which the independence of a neighboring republic has
been taken away, the people placed under foreign military
domination from which they have no appeal, and exposed to
foreign economic exploitation against which they are de
fenseless. All of this has been done in the name of the
Government of the United States ; however, without any act
8
by Congress and without any knowledge of the American
people.
The law by which Haiti is ruled today is martial law dis
pensed by Americans. There is a form of Haitian civil gov
ernment, but it is entirely dominated by the military Occu
pation. President Dartiguenave, bitterly rebellious at heart
as is every good Haitian, confessed to me the power-
lessness of himself and his cabinet. He told me that the
American authorities give no heed to recommendations made
by him or his officers ; that they would not even discuss mat
ters about which the Haitian officials have superior knowl
edge. The provisions of both the old and the new consti
tutions are ignored in that there is no Haitian legislative
body, and there has been none since the dissolution of the
Assembly in April, 1916. In its stead there is a Council of
State composed of twenty-one members appointed by the
president, which functions effectively only when carrying
out the will of the Occupation. Indeed the Occupation often
overrides the civil courts. A prisoner brought before the
proper court, exonerated, and discharged, is, nevertheless,
frequently held by the military. All government funds are
collected by the Occupation and are dispensed at its will and
pleasure. The greater part of these funds is expended for
the maintenance of the military forces. There is the strict
est censorship of the press. No Haitian newspaper is al
lowed to publish anything in criticism of the Occupation or
the Haitian government. Each newspaper in Haiti received
an order to that effect from the Occupation, and the same
order carried the injunction not to print the order. Nothing
that might reflect upon the Occupation administration in
Haiti is allowed to reach the newspapers of the United
States.
The Haitian people justly complain that not only is the
convention inimical to the best interests of their country,
but that the convention, such as it is, is not being carried
out in accordance with the letter, nor in accordance with
the spirit in which they were led to believe it would be car
ried out. Except one, all of the obligations in the conven
tion which the United States undertakes in favor of Haiti
are contained in the first article of that document, the other
fourteen articles being made up substantially of obligations
to the United States assumed by Haiti. But nowhere in
9
those fourteen articles is there anything to indicate that
Haiti would be subjected to military domination. In Article
I the United States promises to "aid the Haitian govern
ment in the proper and efficient development of its agricul
tural, mineral, and commercial resources and in the estab
lishment of the finances of Haiti on a firm and solid basis."
And the whole convention and, especially, the protestations
of the United States before the signing of the instrument
can be construed only to mean that that aid would be ex
tended through the supervision of civilian officials.
The one promise of the United States to Haiti not con
tained in the first article of the convention is that clause of
Article XIV which says, "and, should the necessity occur,
the United States will lend an efficient aid for the preserva
tion of Haitian independence and the maintenance of a gov
ernment adequate for the protection of life, property, and
individual liberty." It is the extreme of irony that this
clause which the Haitians had a right to interpret as a
guarantee to them against foreign invasion should first of
all be invoked against the Haitian people themselves, and
offer the only peg on which any pretense to a right of mili
tary domination can be hung.
There are several distinct forces — financial, military,
bureaucratic — at work in Haiti which, tending to aggravate
the conditions they themselves have created, are largely
self-perpetuating. The most sinister of these, the financial
engulf ment of Haiti by the National City Bank of New
York, already alluded to, will be discussed in detail in a
subsequent article. The military Occupation has made and
continues to make military Occupation necessary. The jus
tification given is that it is necessary for the pacification of
the country. Pacification would never have been necessary
had not American policies been filled with so many stupid
and brutal blunders; and it will never be effective so long
as "pacification" means merely the hunting of ragged
Haitians in the hills with machine guns.
Then there is the force which the several hundred Ameri
can civilian place-holders constitute. They have found in
Haiti the veritable promised land of "jobs for deserving
democrats" and naturally do not wish to see the present
status discontinued. Most of these deserving democrats
are Southerners. The head of the customs service of Haiti
'- 10
was a clerk of one of the parishes of Louisiana. Second
in charge of the customs service of Haiti is a man who was
Deputy Collector of Customs at Pascagoula, Mississippi
[population, 3,379, 1910 Census]. The Superintendent of
Public Instruction was a school teacher in Louisiana — a
State which has not good schools even for white children;
the financial advisor, Mr. Mcllhenny, is also from Louisiana.
Many of the Occupation officers are in the same category
with the civilian place-holders. These men have taken their
wives and families to Haiti. Those at Port-au-Prince live
in beautiful villas. Families that could not keep a hired girl
in the United States have a half-dozen servants. They ride
in automobiles — not their own. Every American head of a
department in Haiti has an automobile furnished at the
expense of the Haitian Government, whereas members of
the Haitian cabinet, who are theoretically above them, have
no such convenience or luxury. While I was there, the
President himself was obliged to borrow an automobile from
the Occupation for a trip through the interior. -The
Louisiana school-teacher Superintendent of Instruction has
an automobile furnished at government expense, whereas
the Haitian Minister of Public Instruction, his supposed su
perior officer, has none. These automobiles seem to be
chiefly employed in giving the women and children an airing
each afternoon. It must be amusing, when it is not madden
ing to the Haitians, to see with what disdainful air these
people look upon them as they ride by.
The platform adopted by the Democratic party at San
Francisco said of the Wilson policy in Mexico :
The Administration, remembering always that Mexico is an
independent nation and that permanent stability in her govern
ment and her institutions could come only from the consent of
her own people to a government of her own making, has been
unwilling either to profit by the misfortunes of the people of
Mexico or to enfeeble their future by imposing from the outside
a rule upon their temporarily distracted councils.
Haiti has never been so distracted in its councils as
Mexico. And even in its moments of greatest distraction it
never slaughtered an American citizen, it never molested an
American woman, it never injured a dollar's worth of
American property. And yet, the Administration whose
lofty purpose was proclaimed as above — with less justifica
tion than Austria's invasion of Serbia, or Germany's rape
11
of Belgium, without warrant other than the doctrine that
"might makes right," has conquered Haiti. It has done this
through the very period when, in the words of its chief
spokesman, our sons were laying down their lives overseas
"for democracy, for the rights of those who submit to au
thority to have a voice in their own government, for the
rights and liberties of small nations." By command of the
author of "pitiless publicity" and originator of "open
covenants openly arrived at," it has enforced by the bayonet
a covenant whose secret has been well guarded by a rigid
censorship from the American nation, and kept a people
enslaved by the military tyranny which it was his avowed
purpose to destroy throughout the world.
From The Nation of August 25, 1920.
II. WHAT THE UNITED STATES HAS ACCOMPLISHED
WHEN the truth about the conquest of Haiti — the
slaughter of three thousand and practically unarmed
Haitians, with the incidentally needless death of a score of
American boys — begins to filter through the rigid Adminis
tration censorship to the American people, the apologists will
become active. Their justification of what has been done
will be grouped under two heads: one, the necessity, and
two, the results. Under the first, much stress will be laid
upon the "anarchy" which existed in Haiti, upon the back
wardness of the Haitians and their absolute unfitness to
govern themselves. The pretext which caused the interven
tion was taken up in the first article of this series. The
characteristics, alleged and real, of the Haitian people will
be taken up in a subsequent article. Now as to results:
The apologists will attempt to show that material improve
ments in Haiti justify American intervention. Let us see
what they are.
Diligent inquiry reveals just three: The building of the
road from Port-au-Prince to Cape Haitien ; the enforcement
of certain sanitary regulations in the larger cities ; and the
improvement of the public hospital at Port-au-Prince. The
enforcement of certain sanitary regulations is not so im
portant as it may sound, for even under exclusive native
rule, Haiti has been a remarkably healthy country and had
never suffered from such epidemics as used to sweep Cuba
'-. 12
and the Panama Canal region. The regulations, moreover,
were of a purely minor character — the sort that might be
issued by a board of health in any American city or town —
and were in no wise fundamental, because there was no
need. The same applies to the improvement of the hospital,
long before the American Occupation, an effectively con
ducted institution but which, it is only fair to say, bene
fited considerably by the regulations and more up-to-date
methods of American army surgeons — the best in the world.
Neither of these accomplishments, however, creditable as
they are, can well be put forward as a justification for mili
tary domination. The building of the great highway from
Port-au-Prince to Cape Haitien is a monumental piece of
work, but it is doubtful whether the object in building it
was to supply the Haitians with a great highway or to con
struct a military road which would facilitate the transpor
tation of troops and supplies from one end of the island to
the other. And this represents the sum total of the con
structive accomplishment after five years of American
Occupation.
Now, the highway, while doubtless the most important
achievement of the three, involved the most brutal of all
the blunders of the Occupation. The work was in charge of
an officer of Marines who stands out even in that organiza
tion for his "treat 'em rough" methods. He discovered the
obsolete Haitian corvee and decided to enforce it with the
most modern Marine efficiency. The corvee, or road law, in
Haiti provided that each citizen should work a certain num
ber of days on the public roads to keep them in condition,
or pay a certain sum of money. In the days when this law
was in force the Haitian government never required the
men to work the roads except in their respective communi
ties, and the number of days was usually limited to three a
year. But the Occupation seized men wherever it could find
them, and no able-bodied Haitian was safe from such raids,
which most closely resembled the African slave raids of past
centuries. And slavery it was — though temporary. By day
or by night, from the bosom of their families, from their
little farms or while trudging peacefully on the country
roads, Haitians were seized and forcibly taken to toil for
months in far sections of the country. Those who protested
or resisted were beaten into submission. At night, after
13
long hours of unremitting labor under armed taskmasters,
who swiftly discouraged any slackening of effort with boot
or rifle butt, the victims were herded in compounds. Those
attempting to escape were shot. Their terror-stricken fam
ilies meanwhile were often in total ignorance of the fate of
their husbands, fathers, brothers.
It is chiefly out of these methods that arose the need for
"pacification." Many men of the rural districts became
panic-stricken and fled to the hills and mountains. Others
rebelled and did likewise, preferring death to slavery. These
refugees largely make up the "caco" forces, to hunt down
which has become the duty and the sport of American
Marines, who were privileged to shoot a "caco" on sight. If
anyone doubts that "caco'' hunting is the sport of American
Marines in Haiti, let him learn the facts about the death of
Charlemagne. Charlemagne Peralte was a Haitian of edu
cation and culture and of great influence in his district. He
was tried by an American courtmartial on the charge of
aiding "cacos." He was sentenced, not to prison, however,
but to five years of hard labor on the roads, and was forced
to work in convict garb on the streets of Cape Haitien. He
made his escape and put himself at the head of several hun
dred followers in a valiant though hopeless attempt to free
Haiti. The America of the Revolution, indeed the America
of the Civil War, would have regarded Charlemagne not as
a criminal but a patriot. He met his death not in open
fight, not in an attempt at his capture, but through a das
tard deed. While standing over his camp fire, he was shot
in cold blood by an American Marine officer who stood con
cealed by the darkness, and who had reached the camp
through bribery and trickery. This deed, which was noth
ing short of assassination, has been heralded as an example
of American heroism. Of this deed, Harry Franck, writing
in the June Century of "The Death of Charlemagne," says :
"Indeed it is fit to rank with any of the stirring warrior
tales with which history is seasoned from the days of the
Greeks down to the recent world war." America should read
"The Death of Charlemagne" which attempts to glorify a
black smirch on American arms and tradition.
There is a reason why the methods employed in road
building affected the Haitian country folk in a way in which
it might not have affected the people of any other Latin-
14
American country. Not since the independence of the coun
try has there been any such thing as a peon in Haiti. The
revolution by which Haiti gained her independence was not
merely a political revolution, it was also a social revolution.
Among the many radical changes wrought was that of cut
ting up the large slave estates into small parcels and allot
ting them among former slaves. And so it was that every
Haitian in the rural districts lived on his own plot of land.
a plot on which his family has lived for perhaps more than
a hundred years. No matter how small or how large that
plot is, and whether he raises much or little on it, it is his
and he is an independent farmer.
The completed highway, moreover, continued to be a barb
in the Haitian wound. Automobiles on this road, running
without any speed limit, are a constant inconvenience or
danger to the natives carrying their market produce to town
on their heads or loaded on the backs of animals. I have
seen these people scramble in terror often up the side or
down the declivity of the mountain for places of safety for
themselves and their animals as the machines snorted by. I
have seen a market woman's horse take flight and scatter
the produce loaded on his back all over the road for several
hundred yards. I have heard an American commercial trav
eler laughingly tell how on the trip from Cape Haitien to
Port-au-Prince the automobile he was in killed a donkey and
two pigs. It had not occurred to him that the donkey might
be the chief capital of the small Haitian farmer and that
the loss of it might entirely bankrupt him. It is all very
humorous, of course, unless you happen to be the Haitian
pedestrian.
The majority of visitors on arriving at Port-au-Prince
and noticing the well-paved, well-kept streets, will at once
jump to the conclusion that this work was done by the Amer
ican Occupation. The Occupation goes to no trouble to
refute this conclusion, and in fact it will by implication cor
roborate it. If one should exclaim, "Why, I am surprised to
see what a well-paved city Port-au-Prince is!" he would be
almost certain to receive the answer, "Yes, but you should
have seen it before the Occupation." The implication here
is that Port-au-Prince was a mudhole and that the O.ccupa-
tion is responsible for its clean and well-paved streets. It
is true that at the time of the intervention, five years ago,
15
there were only one or two paved streets in the Haitian
capital, but the contracts for paving the entire city had
been let by the Haitian Government, and the work had
already been begun. This work was completed during the
Occupation, but the Occupation did not pave, and had noth
ing to do with the paving of a single street in Port-au-
Prince.
One accomplishment I did expect to find — that the Amer
ican Occupation, in its five years of absolute rule, had
developed and improved the Haitian system of public edu
cation. The United States has made some eiforts in this
direction in other countries where it has taken control. In
Porto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines, the attempt, at least,
was made to establish modern school systems. Selected
youths from these countries were taken and sent to the
United States for training in order that they might return
and be better teachers, and American teachers were sent to
those islands in exchange. The American Occupation in
Haiti has not advanced public education a single step. No
new buildings have been erected. Not a single Haitian youth
has been sent to the United States for training as a teacher,
nor has a single American teacher, white or colored, been
sent to Haiti. According to the general budget of Haiti,
1919-1920, there are teachers in the rural schools receiving
as little as six dollars a month. Some of these teachers may
not be worth more than six dollars a month. But after five
years of American rule, there ought not to be a single
teacher in the country who is not worth more than that
paltry sum.
Another source of discontent is the Gendarmerie. When
the Occupation took possession of the island, it disarmed all
Haitians, including the various local police forces. To
remedy this situation the Convention (Article X), provided
that there should be created, —
without delay, an efficient constabulary, urban and rural, com
posed of native Haitians. This constabulary shall be organized
and officered by Americans, appointed by the President of Haiti
upon nomination by the President of the United States. . . .
These officers shall be replaced by Haitians as they, by examina
tion conducted under direction of a board to be selected by the
Senior American Officer of this constabulary in the presence of
a representative of the Haitian Government, are found to be
qualified to assume such duties.
16
During the first months of the Occupation officers of the
Haitian Gendarmerie were commissioned officers of the
marines, but the war took all these officers to Europe. Five
years have passed and the constabulary is still officered
entirely by marines, but almost without exception they are
ex-privates or non-commissioned officers of the United
States Marine Corps commissioned in the gendarmerie.
Many of these men are rough, uncouth, and uneducated, and
a great number from the South, are violently steeped in
color prejudice. They direct all policing of city and town.
It falls to them, ignorant of Haitian ways and language, to
enforce every minor police regulation. Needless to say,
this is a grave source of continued irritation. Where the
genial American "cop" could, with a wave of his hand or
club, convey the full majesty of the law to the small boy
transgressor or to some equally innocuous offender, the
strong-arm tactics for which the marines are famous, are
apt to be promptly evoked. The pledge in the Convention
that "these officers be replaced by Haitians" who could
qualify, has, like other pledges, become a mere scrap of
paper. Graduates of the famous French military academy
of St. Cyr, men who have actually qualified for commissions
in the French army, are denied the opportunity to fill even a
lesser commission in the Haitian Gendarmerie, although
such men, in addition to their pre-eminent qualifications of
training, would, because of their understanding of local con
ditions and their complete familiarity with the ways of their
own country, make ideal guardians of the peace.
The American Occupation of Haiti is not only guilty of
sins of omission, it is guilty of sins of commission in addi
tion to those committed in the building of the great road
across the island. Brutalities and atrocities on the part of
American marines have occurred with sufficient frequency
to be the cause of deep resentment and terror. Marines talk
freely of what they "did" to some Haitians in the outlying
districts. Familiar methods of torture to make captives
reveal what they often do not know are nonchalantly dis
cussed. Just before I left Port-au-Prince an American
Marine had caught a Haitian boy stealing sugar off the
wharf and instead of arresting him he battered his brains
out with the butt of his rifle. I learned from the lips of
American Marines themselves of a number of cases of rape
17
of Haitian women by marines. I often sat at tables in the
hotels and cafes in company with marine officers and they
talked before me without restraint. I remember the descrip
tion of a "caco" hunt by one of them; he told how they
finally came upon a crowd of natives engaged in the popular
pastime of cock-fighting and how. they "let them have it"
with machine guns and rifle fire. I heard another, a captain
of marines, relate how he at a fire in Port-au-Prince ordered
a "rather dressed up Haitian," standing on the sidewalk, to
"get in there" and take a hand at the pumps. It appeared
that the Haitian merely shrugged his shoulders. The cap
tain of marines then laughingly said: "I had on a pretty
heavy pair of boots and I let him have a kick that landed
him in the middle of the street. Someone ran up and told
me that the man was an ex-member of the Haitian Assem
bly." The fact that the man had been a member of the
Haitian Assembly made the whole incident more laughable
to the captain of marines.
Perhaps the most serious aspect of American brutality in
Haiti is not to be found in individual cases of cruelty,
numerous and inexcusable though they are, but rather in
the American attitude, well illustrated by the diagnosis of
an American officer discussing the situation and its diffi
culty: "The trouble with this whole business is that some
of these people with a little money and education think they
are as good as we are," and this is the keynote of the atti
tude of every American to every Haitian. Americans have
carried American hatred to Haiti. They have planted the
feeling of caste and color prejudice where it never before
existed.
And such are the "accomplishments" of the United States
in Haiti. The Occupation has not only failed to achieve
anything worth while, but has made it impossible to do so
because of the distrust and bitterness that it has engendered
in the Haitian people. Through the present instrumental
ities no matter how earnestly the United States may desire
to be fair to Haiti and make intervention a success, it will
not succeed. An entirely new deal is necessary. This Gov
ernment forced the Haitian leaders to accept the promise of
American aid and American supervision. With that Amer
ican aid the Haitian Government defaulted its external and
internal debt, an obligation, which under self-government
18
the Haitians had scrupulously observed. And American
supervision turned out to be a military tyranny supporting
a program of economic exploitation. The United States had
an opportunity to gain the confidence of the Haitian people.
That opportunity has been destroyed. When American
troops first landed, although the Haitian people were out
raged, there was a feeling nevertheless which might well
have developed into cooperation. There were those who had
hopes that the United States, guided by its traditional policy
of nearly a century and a half, pursuing its fine stand in
Cuba, under McKinley, Roosevelt, and Taft, would extend
aid that would be mutually beneficial to both countries.
Those Haitians who indulged this hope are disappointed and
bitter. Those members of the Haitian Assembly who, while
acting under coercion were nevertheless hopeful of Amer
ican promises, incurred unpopularity by voting for the Con
vention, are today bitterly disappointed and utterly dis
illusioned.
If the United States 'should leave Haiti today, it would
leave more than a thousand widows and orphans of its own
making, more banditry than has existed for a century,
resentment, hatred and despair in the heart of a whole peo
ple, to say nothing of the irreparable injury to its own tra
dition as the defender of the rights of man.
From The Nation of September 4, 1920.
III. GOVERNMENT OF, BY, AND FOR THE
NATIONAL CITY BANK .
TjlORMER articles of this series described the Military
JT Occupation of Haiti and the crowd of civilian place
holders as among the forces at work in Haiti to maintain the
present status in that country. But more powerful though
less obvious, and more sinister, because of its deep and varied
radications, is the force exercised by the National City Bank
of New York. It seeks more than the mere maintenance of
the present status in Haiti ; it is constantly working to bring
about a condition more suitable and profitable to itself. Be
hind the Occupation, working conjointly with the Depart
ment of State, stands this great banking institution of New
York and elsewhere. The financial potentates allied with it
are the ones who will profit by the control of Haiti. The
19
United States Marine Corps and the various office-holding
"deserving Democrats," who help maintain the status quo
there, are in reality working for great financial interests in
this country, although Uncle Sam and Haiti pay their
salaries.
Mr. Roger L. Farnham, vice-president of the National City
Bank, was effectively instrumental in bringing about Ameri
can intervention in Haiti. With the administration at Wash
ington, the word of Mr. Farnham supersedes that of any
body else on the island. While Mr. Bailly-Blanchard, with
the title of minister, is its representative in name, Mr. Farn
ham is its representative in fact. His goings and comings
are aboard vessels of the United States Navy. His bank, the
National City, has been in charge of the Banque Nationale
d'Haiti throughout the Occupation.* Only a few weeks ago
he was appointed receiver of the National Railroad of Haiti,
controlling practically the entire railway system in the island
with valuable territorial concessions in all parts.** The
$5,000,000 sugar plant at Port-au-Prince, it is commonly re
ported, is about to fall into his hands.
Now, of all the various responsibilities, expressed, im
plied, or assumed by the United States in Haiti, it would
naturally be supposed that the financial obligation would be
foremost. Indeed, the sister republic of Santo Domingo was
taken over by the United States Navy for no other reason
than failure to pay its internal debt. But Haiti for over one
* The National City Bank originally (about 1911) purchased 2,000 shares
of the stock of the Banque Nationale d'Haiti. After the Occupation it pur
chased 6,000 additional shares in the hands of three New York banking firms.
Since then it has been negotiating for the complete control of the stock, the
balance of which is held in France. The contract for this transfer of the
Bank and the granting of a new charter under the laws of Haiti were agreed
upon and signed at Washington last February. But the delay in completing
these arrangements is caused by the impasse between the State Department
and the National City Bank, on the one hand, and the Haitian Government
on the other, due to the fact that the State Department and the National
City Bank insisted upon including in the contract a clause prohibiting the
importation and exportation of foreign money into Haiti subject only to the
control of the financial adviser. To this new power the Haitian Government
refuses to consent.
** Originally, Mr. James P. McDonald secured from the Haitian Govern
ment the concession to build the railroads under the charter of the National
Railways of Haiti. He arranged with W. R. Grace & Company to finance
the concession. Grace and Company formed a syndicate under the aegis of
the National City Bank which issued $2,500,000 bonds, sold in France. These
bonds were guaranteed by the Haitian Government at an interest of 6 per
cent on $32,500 for each mile. A short while after the floating of these bonds,
Mr. Farnham became President of the company. The syndicate advanced an
other $2,000,000 for the completion of the railroad in accordance with the
concession granted by the Haitian Government. This money was used, but
the work was not completed in accordance with the contract made by the
Haitian Government in the concession. The Haitian Government then re
fused any longer to pay the interest on the mileage. These happenings w.ere
prior to 1915.
20
hundred years scrupulously paid its external and internal
debt — a fact worth remembering when one hears of "anarchy
and disorder" in that land — until five years ago when under
the financial guardianship of the United States interest on
both the internal and, with one exception, external debt was
defaulted; and this in spite of the fact that specified reve
nues were pledged for the payment of this interest. Apart
from the distinct injury to the honor and reputation of the
country, the hardship on individuals has been great. For
while the foreign debt is held particularly in France which,
being under great financial obligations to the United States
since the beginning of the war, has not been able to protest
effectively, the interior debt is held almost entirely by
Haitian citizens. Haitian Government bonds have long been
the recognized substantial investment for the well-to-do and
middle class people, considered as are in this country, United
States, state, and municipal bonds. Non-payment on these
securities has placed many families in absolute want.
What has happened to these bonds? They are being sold
for a song, for the little cash they will bring. Individuals
closely connected with the National Bank of Haiti are ready
purchasers. When the new Haitian loan is floated it will,
of course, contain ample provisions for redeeming these old
bonds at par. The profits will be more than handsome. Not
that the National Bank has not already made hay in the
sunshine of American Occupation. From the beginning it
has been sole depositary of all revenues collected in the name
of the Haitian Government by the American Occupation, re
ceiving in addition to the interest rate a commission on all
funds deposited. The bank is the sole agent in the transmis
sion of these funds. It has also the exclusive note-issuing
privilege in the republic. At the same time complaint is
widespread among the Haitian business men that the Bank
no longer as of old accommodates them with credit and that
its interests are now entirely in developments of its own.
Now, one of the promises that was made to the Haitian
Government, partly to allay its doubts and fears as to the
purpose and character of the American intervention, was
that the United States would put the country's finances on a
solid and substantial basis. A loan for $30,000,000 or more
was one of the features of this promised assistance. Pur
suant, supposedly, to this plan, a Financial Adviser for
21
Haiti was appointed in the person of Mr. John Avery Mc-
Ilhenny. Who is Mr. Mcllhenny? That he has the cordial
backing and direction of so able a financier as Mr. Farnham
is comforting when one reviews the past record and experi
ence in finance of Haiti's Financial Adviser as given by him
in "Who's Who in America," for 1918-1919. He was born in
Avery Island, Iberia Parish, La. ; went to Tulane University
for one year; was a private in the Louisiana State militia
for five years; trooper in the U. S. Cavalry in 1898; pro
moted to second lieutenancy for gallantry in action at San
Juan; has been member of the Louisiana House of Repre
sentatives and Senate; was a member of the U. S. Civil
Service Commission in 1906 and president of the same in
1913 ; Democrat. It is under his Financial Advisership that
the Haitian interest has been continued in default with the
one exception above noted, when several months ago $3,000,-
000 was converted into francs to meet the accumulated in
terest payments on the foreign debt. Dissatisfaction on the
part of the Haitians developed over the lack of financial per
spicacity in this transaction of Mr. Mcllhenny because the
sum was converted into francs at the rate of nine to a dollar
while shortly after the rate of exchange on French francs
dropped to fourteen to a dollar. Indeed, Mr. Mcllhenny's
unfitness by training and experience for the delicate and im
portant position which he is filling was one of the most gen
erally admitted facts which I gathered in Haiti.
At the present writing, however, Mr. Mcllhenny has be
come a conspicuous figure in the history of the Occupation
of Haiti as the instrument by which the National City Bank
is striving to complete the riveting, double-locking and bolt
ing of its financial control of the island. For although it
would appear that the absolute military domination under
which Haiti is held would enable the financial powers to
accomplish almost anything they desire, they are wise
enough to realize that a day of reckoning, such as, for in
stance, a change in the Administration in the United States,
may be coming. So they are eager and anxious to have
everything they want signed, sealed, and delivered. Any
thing, of course, that the Haitians have fully "consented to"
no one else can reasonably object to.
A little recent history: in February of the present year,
the ministers of the different departments, in order to con-
22
form to the letter of the law (Article 116 of the Constitution
of Haiti, which was saddled upon her in 1918 by the Occu
pation* and Article 2 of the Haitian-American Conven
tion**) began work on the preparation of the accounts for
1918-1919 and the budget for 1920-1921. On March 22 a
draft of the budget was sent to Mr. A. J. Maumus, Acting
Financial Adviser, in the absence of Mr. Mcllhenny who had
at that time been in the United States for seven months.
Mr. Maumus replied on March 29, suggesting postponement
of all discussion of the budget until Mr. Mcllhenny's return.
Nevertheless, the Legislative body, in pursuance of the law,
opened on its constitutional date, Monday, April 5. Despite
the great urgency of the matter in hand, the Haitian ad
ministration was obliged to mark time until June 1, when
Mr. Mcllhenny returned to Haiti. Several conferences with
the various ministers were then undertaken. On June 12, at
one of these conferences, there arrived in the place of the
Financial Adviser a note stating that he would be obliged to
stop all study of the ,budget "until the time when certain
affairs of considerable importance to the well-being of the
country shall be finally settled according to recommendations
made by me to the Haitian Government." As he did not
give in his note the slightest idea what these important
affairs were, the Haitian Secretary wrote asking for in
formation, at the same time calling attention to the already
great and embarrassing delay, and reminding Mr. Mcllhenny
that the preparation of the accounts and budget was one of
his legal duties as an official attached to the Haitian Govern
ment, of which he could not divest himself.
On July 19 Mr. Mcllhenny supplied his previous omission
in a memorandum which he transmitted to the Haitian De
partment of Finance, in which he said : "I had instructions
from the Department of State of the United States just be
fore my departure for Haiti, in a part of a letter of May 20,
to declare to the Haitian Government that it was necessary
to give its immediate and formal approval to :
* "The general accounts and the budgets prescribed by the preceding article
must be submitted to the Legislative Body by the Secretary of Finance not
later than eight days after the opening of the Legislative Session."
** "The President of Haiti shall appoint, on the nomination of the Presi
dent of the United States, a. Financial Adviser who shall be attached to the
Ministry of Finance, to whom the Secretary (of Finance) shall lend effective
aid in the prosecution of his work. The Financial Adviser shall work out a
system of public accounting, shall aid in increasing the revenues and in their
adjustment to expenditures. . . ."
23
1. A modification of the Bank Contract agreed upon by the
Department of State and the National City Bank of New York.
2. Transfer of the National Bank of the Republic of Haiti
to a new bank registered under the laws of Haiti, to be known
as the National Bank of the Republic of Haiti.
3. The execution of Article 15 of the Contract of Withdrawal
prohibiting the importation and exportation of non-Haitian
money except that which might be necessary for the needs of
commerce in the opinion of the Financial Adviser."
Now, what is the meaning and significance of these pro
posals? The full details have not been given out, but it is
known that they are part of a new monetary law for Haiti
involving the complete transfer of the Banque Nationale
d'Haiti to the National City Bank of New York. The docu
ment embodying the agreements, with the exception of the
clause prohibiting the importation of foreign money, was
signed at Washington, February 6, 1920, by Mr. Mcllhenny,
the Haitian Minister at Washington and the Haitian Secre
tary of Finance. The Haitian Government has officially de
clared that the clause prohibiting the importation and ex
portation of foreign money, except as it may be deemed
necessary in the opinion of the Financial Adviser, was added
to the original agreement by some unknown party. It is for
the purpose of compelling the Haitian Government to ap
prove the agreements, including the "prohibition clause,"
that pressure is now being applied. Efforts on the part of
business interests in Haiti to learn the character and scope
of what was done at Washington have been thwarted by
close secrecy. However, sufficient of its import has become
known to understand the reasons for the unqualified and
definite refusal of President Dartiguenave and the Govern
ment to give their approval. Those reasons are that the
agreements would give to the National Bank of Haiti, and
thereby to the National City Bank of New York, exclusive
monopoly upon the right of importing and exporting Ameri
can and other foreign money to and from Haiti, a monopoly
which would carry unprecedented and extraordinarily lucra
tive privileges.
The proposal involved in this agreement has called forth
a vigorous protest on the part of every important banking
and business concern in Haiti with the exception, of course,
of the National Bank of Haiti. This protest was trans
mitted to the Haitian Minister of Finance on July 30 past.
24
The protest is signed not only by Haitians and Europeans
doing business in that country but also by the leading
American business concerns, among which are The Ameri
can Foreign Banking Corporation, The Haitian-American
Sugar Company, The Panama Railroad Steamship Line,
The Clyde Steamship Line, and The West Indies Trading
Company. Among the foreign signers are the Royal Bank of
Canada, Le Comptoir Frangais, Le Comptoir Commercial,
and besides a number of business firms.
We have now in Haiti a triangular situation with the
National City Bank and our Department of State in two
corners and the Haitian government in the third. Pres
sure is being brought on the Haitian government to com
pel it to grant a monopoly which on its face appears de
signed to give the National City Bank a strangle hold on the
financial life of that country. With the Haitian govern
ment refusing to yield, we have the Financial Adviser who
is, according to the Haitian-American Convention, a Hai
tian official charged with certain duties (in this case the
approval of the budget and accounts), refusing to carry out
those duties until the government yields to the pressure
which is being brought.
Haiti is now experiencing the "third degree." Ever since
the Bank Contract was drawn and signed at Washington
increasing pressure has been applied to make the Haitian
government accept the clause prohibiting the importation
of foreign money. Mr. Mcllhenny is now holding up the
salaries of the President, ministers of departments, mem
bers of the Council of State, and the official interpreter.
[These salaries have not been paid since July 1.] And
there the matter now stands.
Several things may happen. The Administration, finding
present methods insufficient, may decide to act as in Santo
Domingo, to abolish the President, cabinet, and all civil
government — as they have already abolished the Haitian
Assembly — and put into effect, by purely military force,
what, in the face of the unflinching Haitian refusal to sign
away their birthright, the combined military, civil, and
financial pressure has been unable to accomplish. Or, with
an election and a probable change of Administration in
this country pending, with a Congressional investigation
foreshadowed, it may be decided that matters are "too diffi-
25
cult" and the National City Bank may find that it can be
more profitably engaged elsewhere. Indications of such a
course are not lacking. From the point of view of the
National City Bank, of course, the institution has not only
done nothing which is not wholly legitimate, proper, and
according to the canons of big business throughout the
world, but has actually performed constructive and gener
ous service to a backward and uncivilized people in attempt
ing to promote their railways, to develop their country,
and to shape soundly their finance. That Mr. Farnham and
those associated with him hold these views sincerely, there
is no doubt. But that the Haitians, after over one hundred
years of self-government and liberty, contemplating the
slaughter of three thousand of their sons, the loss of their
political and economic freedom, without compensating ad
vantages which they can appreciate, feel very differently.
is equally true.
From The Nation of September n, 1920.
IV. THE HAITIAN PEOPLE
THE first sight of Port-au-Prince is perhaps most star
tling to the experienced Latin-American traveler.
Caribbean cities are of the Spanish-American type — build
ings square and squat, built generally around a court, with
residences and business houses scarcely interdistinguishable.
Port-au-Prince is rather a city of the French or Italian
Riviera. Across the bay of deepest blue the purple moun
tains of Gonave loom against the Western sky, rivaling the
bay's azure depths. Back of the business section, spread
ing around the bay's great sweep and well into the plain
beyond, rise the green hills with their white residences.
The residential section spreads over the slopes and into the
mountain tiers. High up are the homes of the well-to-do,
beautiful villas set in green gardens relieved by the flaming
crimson of the poinsettia. Despite the imposing mountains
a man-made edifice dominates the scene. From the center of
the city the great Gothic cathedral lifts its spires above the
tranquil city. Well-paved and clean, the city prolongs the
thrill of its first unfolding. Cosmopolitan yet quaint, with
an old-world atmosphere yet a charm of its own, one gets
throughout the feeling of continental European life. In
'-. 26
the hotels and cafes the affairs of the world are heard dis
cussed in several languages. The cuisine and service are
not only excellent but inexpensive. At the Cafe Dereix,
cool and scrupulously clean, dinner from hors d'oeuvres to
glaces, with wine, of course, recalling the famous ante
bellum hostelries of New York and Paris, may be had for
six gourdes [$1.25].
A drive of two hours around Port-au-Prince, through the
newer section of brick and concrete buildings, past the
cathedral erected from 1903 to 1912, along the Champ de
Mars where the new presidential palace stands, up into the
Peu de Choses section where the hundreds of beautiful villas
and grounds of the well-to-do are situated, permanently
dispels any lingering question that the Haitians have been
retrograding during the 116 years of their independence.
In the lower city, along the water's edge, around the
market and in the Rue Republicaine, is the "local color."
The long rows of wooden shanties, the curious little booths
around the market, filled with jabbering venders and with
scantily clad children, magnificent in body, running in and
out, are no less picturesque and no more primitive, no
humbler, yet cleaner, than similar quarters in Naples, in
Lisbon, in Marseilles, and more justifiable than the great
slums of civilization's centers — London and New York,
which are totally without aesthetic redemption. But it is
only the modernists in history who are willing to look at
the masses as factors in the life and development of the
country, and in its history. For Haitian history, like his
tory the world over, has for the last century been that of
cultured and educated groups. To know Haitian life one
must have the privilege of being received as a guest in the
houses of these latter, and they live in beautiful houses.
The majority have been educated in France; they are cul
tured, brilliant conversationally, and thoroughly enjoy their
social life. The women dress well. Many are beautiful
and all vivacious and chic. Cultivated people from any
part of the world would feel at home in the best Haitian
society. If our guest were to enter to the Cercle Bellevue,
the leading club of Port-au-Prince, he would find the
courteous, friendly atmosphere of a men's club; he would
hear varying shades of opinion on public questions, and
could scarcely fail to be impressed by the thorough knowl-
27
edge of world affairs possessed by the intelligent Haitian.
Nor would his encounters be only with people who have
culture and savoir vivre; he would meet the Haitian intel
lectuals — poets, essayists, novelists, historians, critics. Take
for example such a writer as Fernand Hibbert. An English
authority says of him, "His essays are worthy of the pen of
Anatole France or Pierre Loti." And there is Georges
Sylvaine, poet and essayist, conferencier at the Sorbonne,
where his address was received with acclaim, author of
books crowned by the French Academy, and an Officer of
the Legion d'Honneur. Hibbert and Sylvaine are only two
among a dozen or more contemporary Haitian men of let
ters whose work may be measured by world standards. Two
names that stand out preeminently in Haitian literature are
Oswald Durand, the national poet, who died a few years ago,
and Damocles Vieux. These people, educated, cultured, and
intellectual, are not accidental and sporadic offshoots of the
Haitian people; they wre the Haitian people and they are a
demonstration of its inherent potentialities.
However, Port-au-Prince is not all of Haiti. Other cities
are smaller replicas, and fully as interesting are the people
of the country districts. Perhaps the deepest impression
on the observant visitor is made by the country women.
Magnificent as they file along the country roads by scores
and by hundreds on their way to the town markets, with
white or colored turbaned heads, gold-looped-ringed ears,
they stride along straight and lithe, almost haughtily, carry
ing themselves like so many Queens of Sheba. The Haitian
country people are kind-hearted, hospitable, and polite, sel
dom stupid but rather, quick-witted and imaginative. Fond
of music, with a profound sense of beauty and harmony,
they live simply but wholesomely. Their cabins rarely con
sist of only one room, the humblest having two or three,
with a little shed front and back, a front and rear entrance,
and plenty of windows. An aesthetic touch is never lacking
— a flowering hedge or an arbor with trained vines bearing
gorgeous colored blossoms. There is no comparison between
the neat plastered-wall, thatched-roof cabin of the Haitian
peasant and the traditional log hut of the South or the
shanty of the more wretched American suburbs. The most
notable feature about the Haitian cabin is its invariable
cleanliness. At daylight the country people are up and
28
about, the women begin their sweeping till the earthen or
pebble-paved floor of the cabin is clean as can be. Then the
yards around the cabin are vigorously attacked. In fact,
nowhere in the country districts of Haiti does one find the
filth and squalor which may be seen in any backwoods town
in our own South. Cleanliness is a habit and a dirty
Haitian is a rare exception. The garments even of the men
who work on the wharves, mended and patched until little
of the original cloth is visible, give evidence of periodical
washing. The writer recalls a remark made by Mr. E. P.
Pawley, an American, who conducts one of the largest busi
ness enterprises in Haiti. He said that the Haitians were
an exceptionally clean people, that statistics showed that
Haiti imported more soap per capita than any country in
the world, and added, "They use it, too." Three of the
largest soap manufactories in the United States maintain
headquarters at Port-au-Prince.
The masses of the Haitian people are splendid material
for the building of a nation. They are not lazy; on the
contrary, they are industrious and thrifty. Some observers
mistakenly confound primitive methods with indolence.
Anyone who travels Haitian roads is struck by the hundreds
and even thousands of women, boys, and girls filing along
mile after mile with their farm and garden produce on
their heads or loaded on the backs of animals. With modern
facilities, they could market their produce much more effi
ciently and with far less effort. But lacking them they are
willing to walk and carry. For a woman to walk five to ten
miles with a great load of produce on her head which may
barely realize her a dollar is doubtless primitive, and a
wasteful expenditure of energy, but it is not a sign of
laziness. Haiti's great handicap has been not that her
masses are degraded or lazy or immoral. It is that they are
ignorant, due not so much to mental limitations as to en
forced illiteracy. There is a specific reason for this. Some
how the French language, in the French-American colonial
settlements containing a Negro population, divided itself
into two branches, French and Creole. This is true oi
Louisiana, Martinique, Guadeloupe, and also of Haiti.
Creole is an Africanized French and must not be thought of
as a mere dialect. The French-speaking person cannot un
derstand Creole, excepting a few words, unless he learns it.
29
Creole is a distinct tongue, a graphic and very expressive
language. Many of its constructions follow closely the
African idioms. For example, in forming the superlative of
greatness, one says in Creole, "He is great among great
men," and a merchant woman, following the native idiom,
will say, "You do not wish anything beautiful if you
do not buy this." The upper Haitian class, approximately
500,000, speak and know French, while the masses, prob
ably more than 2,000,000 speak only Creole. Haitian Creole
is grammatically constructed, but has not to any general
extent been reduced to writing. Therefore, these masses
have no means of receiving or communicating thoughts
through the written word. They have no books to read.
They cannot read the newspapers. The children of the
masses study French for a few years in school, but it never
becomes their every-day language. In order to abolish
Haitian illiteracy, Creole must be made a printed as well as
a spoken language. The failure to undertake this problem
is the worst indictment against the Haitian Government.
This matter of language proves a handicap to Haiti in
another manner. It isolates her from her sister republics.
All of the Latin-American republics except Brazil speak
Spanish and enjoy an intercourse with the outside world
denied Haiti. Dramatic and musical companies from Spain,
•^rom Mexico and from the Argentine annually tour all of
the Spanish-speaking republics. Haiti is deprived, of all
such instruction and entertainment from the outside world
because it is not profitable for French companies to visit
the three or four French-speaking islands in the Western
Hemisphere.
Much stress has been laid on the bloody history of Haiti
and its numerous revolutions. Haitian history has been all
too bloody, but so has that of every other country, and the
bloodiness of the Haitian revolutions has of late been unduly
magnified. A writer might visit our own country and clip
from our daily press accounts of murders, robberies on
the principal streets of our larger cities, strike violence,
race riots, lynchings, and burnings at the stake of human
beings, and write a book to prove that life is absolutely
unsafe in the United States. The seriousness of the fre
quent Latin-American revolutions has been greatly over
emphasized. The writer has been in the midst of three of
' 30
these revolutions and must confess that the treatment given
them on our comic opera stage is very little farther removed
from the truth than the treatment which is given in the
daily newspapers. Not nearly so bloody as reported, their
interference with people not in politics is almost negligible.
Nor should it be forgotten that in almost every instance the
revolution is due to the plotting of foreigners backed up by
their Governments. No less an authority than Mr. John H.
Allen, vice-president of the National City Bank of New
York, writing on Haiti in the May number of The Americas,
the National City Bank organ, who says, "It is no secret
that the revolutions were financed by foreigners and were
profitable speculations."
In this matter of change of government by revolution,
Haiti must not be compared with the United States or with
England; it must be compared with other Latin American
republics. When it is compared with our next door neigh
bor, Mexico, it will be found that the Government of Haiti
has been more stable and that the country has experienced
less bloodshed and anarchy. And it must never be forgot
ten that throughout not an American or other foreigner nas
been killed, injured or, as far as can be ascertained, even
molested. In Haiti's 116 years of independence, there have
been twenty-five presidents and twenty-five different ad
ministrations. In Mexico, during its 99 years of indepen
dence, there have been forty-seven rulers and eighty-seven
administrations. "Graft" has been plentiful, shocking at
times, but who in America, where the Tammany machines
and the municipal rings are notorious, will dare to point the
finger of scorn at Haiti in this connection.
And this is the people whose "inferiority," whose "retro
gression," whose "savagery," is advanced as a justification
for intervention — for the ruthless slaughter of three thou
sand of its practically defenseless sons, with the death of a
score of our own boys, for the utterly selfish exploitation
of the country by American big finance, for the destruction
of America's most precious heritage — her traditional fair
play, her sense of justice, her aid to the oppressed. "In
feriority" always was the excuse of ruthless imperialism
until the Germans invaded Belgium, when it became "mili
tary necessity." In the case of Haiti there is not the slight
est vestige of any of the traditional justifications, unwar-
31
ranted as these generally are, and no amount of misrep
resentation in an era when propaganda and censorship have
had their heyday, no amount of slander, even in a country
deeply prejudiced where color is involved, will longer serve
to obscure to the conscience of America the eternal shame
of its last five years in Haiti. Fiat justitia, mat coelum!
From The Nation of September 25, 1920.
Documents
The folloiving are from The Nation of August 28, 1920
The Proposed Convention with Haiti
THE Fuller Convention, submitted to the Haitian Minis
ter of Foreign Affairs on May 22, 1915, by Mr. Paul
Fuller, Jr., Envoy Extraordinary of the United States to
Haiti, read as follows, the preliminary and concluding para
graphs being omitted:
1. The Government of the United States of America will pro
tect the Republic of Haiti from outside attack and from the ag
gression of any foreign Power, and to that end will employ such
forces of the army and navy of the United States as may be
necessary.
2. The Govsrnment of the United States of America will aid
tKe Government of Haiti to suppress insurrection from within
and will give effective support by the employment of the armed
forces of the United States army and navy to the extent needed.
3. The President of the Republic of Haiti covenants that no
rights, privileges, or facilities of any description whatsoever
will be granted, sold, leased, or otherwise accorded directly or
indirectly by the Government of Haiti concerning the occupation
or use of the Mole Saint-Nicolas to any foreign government or
to a national or the nationals of any other foreign government.
4. The President of the Republic of Haiti covenants that
within six months from the signing of this convention, the Gov
ernment will enter into an arbitration agreement for the settle
ment of such claims as American citizens or other foreigners
may have against the Government of Haiti, such arbitration
agreement to provide for the equal treatment of all foreigners
to the end that the people of Haiti may have the benefit of com
petition between the nationals of all countries.
-. 32
The Haitian Counter-Project
THE counter-project of the Haitian Government, of
June 4, 1915, with such of the modifications suggested
by Mr. Fuller as the Haitian Government was willing to
accept, read as follows:
I. The Government of the United States of America will lend
its assistance to the Republic of Haiti for the preservation of its
independence. For that purpose it agrees to intervene to pre
vent the intrusion of any Power and to repulse any act of
aggression against the Republic of Haiti. To that end it will
employ such forces of the army and navy of the United States
as may be necessary.
II. The Government of the United States will facilitate the
entry into Haiti of sufficient capital to assure the full economic
development of that country, and to improve, within the imme
diate future, its financial situation, especially to bring about
the unification of its debt in such fashion as to reduce the cus
toms guaranties now required, and to lead to a fundamental
money reform.
In order to give such capital all desirable guaranties the
Government of Haiti agrees to employ in the customs service
only officials whose ability and character are well known, and
to replace those who in practice are found not to fill these con
ditions.
The Government of Haiti will also assure the protection of
capital and in general of all foreign interests by the organiza
tion of a mounted rural constabulary trained in the most mod
ern methods.
In the meantime if it be necessary the Government of the
United States, after consultation with the Government of Haiti,
will give its aid in the repression of serious disorders or trou
bles which might compromise these foreign interests.
The American forces which have in the given circumstances
cooperated with the Haitian troops in the restoration of order,
should be retired from Haitian territory at the first request of
the constitutional authority.
III. The President of the Republic of Haiti covenants that
no rights, privileges, or facilities of any description whatsoever
will be granted, sold, leased, or otherwise accorded directly or
indirectly by the Government of Haiti concerning the occupation
or use of the Mole Saint-Nicolas to any foreign government or
to a national or the nationals of any other foreign government.
IV. The President of the Republic of Haiti covenahts
within six months of the signing of this convention to sign a
convention of arbitration with the Powers concerned for the
33
settlement of the diplomatic claims pending, which arbitration
convention will provide for the equal treatment of all claimants,
no special privileges being granted to any of them.
V. In case of difficulties regarding the interpretation of the
clauses of the present convention, the high contracting parties
agree to submit the difference to the Permanent Court of Arbi
tration at The Hague.
Mr. Fuller had suggested a further modification which
the Haitian Government refused. It changed the final para
graph of Article II to read: "The American forces which
have in the given circumstance cooperated with the Haitian
troops, shall, when order has been reestablished, be retired,"
etc. His other suggestions were accepted with unimpor
tant verbal changes.
The Haitian-United States Convention
THE convention between the United States and Haiti
was ratified on September 16, 1915, after the occupa
tion of the country by American troops. In its final form
it is in interesting contrast with the suggested agreements
printed above.
The United States and the Republic of Haiti, desiring to
confirm and strengthen the amity existing between them by
the most cordial cooperation in measures for their common
advantage, and the Republic of Haiti desiring to remedy the
present condition of its revenues and finances, to maintain
the tranquillity of the Republic, to carry out plans for the
economic development and prosperity of the Republic and its
people, and the United States being in full sympathy with all
of these aims and objects and desiring to contribute in all
proper ways to their accomplishment;
The United States and the Republic of Haiti have resolved
to conclude a convention with these objects in view, and have
appointed for that purpose plenipotentiaries:
The President of the Republic of Haiti, Mr. Louis Borno,
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Public Instruction,
The President of the United States, Mr. Robert Beale Davis,
Jr., Charge d'Affaires of the United States of America;
Who, having exhibited to each other their respective powers,
which are seen to be full in good and true form, have agreed
as follows:
ARTICLE I. The Government of the United States will, by
its good offices, aid the Haitian Government in the proper and
'- 34
efficient development of its agricultural, mineral, and com
mercial resources and in the establishment of the finances of
Haiti on a firm and solid basis.
ARTICLE II. The President of Haiti shall appoint, upon
nomination by the President of the United States, a General
Receiver and such aids and employees as may be necessary, who
shall collect, receive, and apply all customs duties on imports
and exports accruing at the several customs-houses and ports of
entry of the Republic of Haiti.
The President of Haiti shall appoint, upon nomination by the
President of the United States, a Financial Adviser who shall
be an officer attached to the Ministry of Finance, to give effect
to whose proposals and labors the Minister will lend efficient
aid. The Financial Adviser shall devise an adequate system of
public accounting, aid in increasing the revenues and adjusting
them to the expenses, inquire into the validity of the debts of
the Republic, enlighten both governments with reference to all
eventual debts, recommend improved methods of collecting and
applying the revenues, and make such other recommendations
to the Minister of Finance as may be deemed necessary for the
welfare and prosperity of Haiti.
ARTICLE III. The Government of the Republic of Haiti will
provide by law or appropriate decrees for the payment of all
customs duties to the General Receiver, and will extend to the
Receivership, and to the Financial Adviser, all needful aid and
full protection in the execution of the powers conferred and
duties imposed herein; and the United States on its part will
extend like aid and protection.
ARTICLE IV. Upon the appointment of the Financial Ad
viser, the Government of the Republic of Haiti in cooperation
with the Financial Adviser, shall collate, classify, arrange, and
make full statement of all the debts of the Republic, the
amounts, character, maturity, and condition thereof, and the
interest accruing and the sinking fund requisite to their final
discharge.
ARTICLE V. All sums collected and received by the General
Receiver shall be applied, first to the payment of the salaries
and allowances of the General Receiver, his assistants, and em
ployees and expenses of the Receivership, including the salary
and expenses of the Financial Adviser, which salaries will be
determined by the previous agreement; second, to the interest
and sinking fund of the public debt of the Republic of Haiti;
and third, to the maintenance of the constabulary referred to
in Article X, and then the remainder to the Haitian Govern
ment for the purposes of current expenses.
In making these applications the General Receiver will pro
ceed to pay salaries and allowances monthly and expenses as
35
they arise, and on the first of each calendar month will set
aside in a separate fund the quantum of the collections and
receipts of the previous month.
ARTICLE VI. The expenses of the Receivership, including
salaries and allowances of the General Receiver, his assistants,
and employees, and the salary and expenses of the Financial
Adviser, shall not exceed 5 per cent of the collections and re
ceipts from customs duties, unless by agreement by the two
governments.
ARTICLE VII. The General Receiver shall make monthly
reports of all collections, receipts, and disbursements to the
appropriate officers of the Republic of Haiti and to the Depart
ment of State of the United States, which reports shall be open
to inspection and verification at all times by the appropriate
authorities of each of the said governments.
ARTICLE VIII. The Republic of Haiti shall not increase its
public debt, except by previous agreement with the President
of the United States, and shall not contract any debt or assume
any financial obligation unless the ordinary revenues of the
Republic available for that purpose, after defraying the ex
penses of the Government, shall be adequate to pay the interest
and provide a sinking fund for the final discharge of such
debt.
ARTICLE IX. The Republic of Haiti will not, without the
assent of the President of the United States, modify the customs
duties in a manner to reduce the revenues therefrom; and in
order that the revenues of the Republic may be adequate to
meet the public debt and the expenses of the Government, to
preserve tranquillity, and to promote material prosperity, the
Republic of Haiti will cooperate with the Financial Adviser in
his recommendations for improvement in the methods of collect
ing and disbursing the revenues and for new sources of needed
income.
ARTICLE X. The Haitian Government obligates itself, for
the preservation of domestic peace, the security of individual
rights, and the full observance of the provisions of this treaty,
to create without delay an efficient constabulary, urban and
rural, composed of native Haitians. This constabulary shall be
organized and 'officered by Americans appointed by the President
of Haiti, upon nomination by the President of the United States.
The Haitian Government shall clothe these officers with the,
proper and necessary authority and uphold them in the per
formance of their functions. These officers will be replaced by
Haitians as they, by examination conducted under direction of a
board to be selected by the senior American officer of this con
stabulary in the presence of a representative of the Haitian
Government, are found to be qualified to assume such duties.
-. 36
The constabulary herein provided for shall, under the direction
of the Haitian Government, have supervision and control of
arms and ammunition, military supplies and traffic therein,
throughout the country. The high contracting parties agree
that the stipulations in this article are necessary to prevent
factional strife and disturbances.
ARTICLE XI. The Government of Haiti agrees not to sur
render any of the territory of we Republic of Haiti by sale,
lease, or otherwise, or jurisdiction over such territory, to any
foreign government or Power, nor to enter into any treaty or
contract with any foreign Power or Powers that will impair or
tend to impair the independence of Haiti.
ARTICLE XII. The Haitian Government agrees to execute
with the United States a protocol for the settlement, by arbitra
tion or otherwise, of all pending pecuniary claims of foreign
corporations, companies, citizens, or subjects against Haiti.
ARTICLE XIII. The Republic of Haiti, being desirous to
further the development of its natural resources, agrees to un
dertake and execute such measures as, in the opinion of the
high contracting parties, may be necessary for the sanitation
and public improvement of the Republic under the supervision
and direction of an engineer or engineers, to be appointed by
the President of Haiti upon nomination of the President of the
United States, and authorized for that purpose by the Govern
ment of Haiti.
ARTICLE XIV. The high contracting parties shall have
authority to take such steps as may be necessary to insure the
complete attainment of any of the objects comprehended in this
treaty; and should the necessity occur, the United States will
lend an efficient aid for the preservation of Haitian independ
ence and the maintenance of a government adequate for the
protection of life, property, and individual liberty.
ARTICLE XV. The present treaty shall be approved and
ratified by the high contracting parties in conformity with their
respective laws, and the ratifications thereof shall be exchanged
in the City of Washington as soon as may be possible.
ARTICLE XVI. The present treaty shall remain in full fores
and virtue for the term of ten years, to be counted from the day
of exchange of ratifications, and further for another term of
ten years if, for specific reasons presented by either of the high
contracting parties, the purpose of this treaty has not been fully
accomplished.
In faith whereof, the respective plenipotentiaries have signed
the present convention in duplicate, in the English and French
languages, and have thereunto affixed their seals.
37
Done at Port-au-Prince (Haiti), the 16th day of September
in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and fifteen.
ROBERT BEALE DAVIS, JR.,
Charge d' Affaires of the United States
Louis BORNO,
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
and Public Instruction
The New Constitution of Haiti
THE new Constitution of the Republic of Haiti, ratified
under the American Occupation, altered the former
Constitution in regard to the important subject of the right
of foreigners to hold land. Article 6 of the old Constitution
reads :
No one, unless he is a Haitian, may be a holder of land in
Haiti, regardless of what his title may be, nor acquire any real
estate.
Article 5 of the Constitution of 1918 makes the following
provision :
The right to hold property is given to foreigners residing in
Haiti, and to societies formed by foreigners, for dwelling pur
poses and for agricultural, commercial, industrial, or educa
tional enterprises. This right shall be discontinued five years
after the foreigner shall have ceased to reside in the country, or
when the activities of these companies shall have ceased.
The Haitian President's Proclamation
IN the Moniteur, official organ of the Republic of Haiti,
for September 4, 1915, in a column headed "Liberty,
Equality, Fraternity," the president of Haiti published a
proclamation on the situation arising from the occupation
by American troops of the customs-house at Port-au-Prince.
Haitians! At the very moment when the Government, en
gaged in negotiations to settle the question of the presence of
American military forces on Haitian territory, was looking for
ward to a prompt solution in accordance with law and justice,
it finds itself faced with the simple seizure of possession of the
customs administration of the capital.
Previously the customs-houses of several other cities of the
republic had been occupied in like fashion, and whenever the
news of such occupation reached the National Palace or the
Department of Finances, it was followed by an energetic pro-
38
test, demanding that the diplomatic representative of the Amer
ican Government residing at Port-au-Prince restore the cus
toms-houses and put an end to acts so contrary to the relations
at present existing between the Government of Haiti and the
Government of the United States of North America.
Haitians! In bringing these facts officially to the attention
of the country, I owe it to myself to declare further, in the most
formal fashion, to you and to the entire civilized world, that the
order to carry out these acts so destructive of the interests,
rights, and sovereignty of the Haitian people is not due to any
thing which can be cited against the patriotism, devotion, spirit
of sacrifice, and loyalty of those to whom the destinies of the
country have been intrusted. You are the judges of that.
Nor will I conceal the fact that my astonishment is greater
because the negotiations, which had been undertaken in the
hope of an agreement upon the basis of propositions presented
by the American Government itself, after having passed through
the ordinary phases of diplomatic discussion, with frankness and
courtesy on both sides, have now been relieved of the only ob
stacles which had hitherto appeared to stand in their way.
Haitians! In this agonizing situation, more than tragic for
every truly Haitian soul, the Government, which intends to
preserve full national sovereignty, will be able to maintain the
necessary resolution only if all are united in exercising their
intelligence and energy with it in the present task of saving the
nation. . . .
SUDRE DARTIGUENAVE
Given at the National Palace, September 2, 1915, in the 112th
year of our independence,
The following are from the Nation of September 11, 1920
Why Haiti Has No Budget
AT the session of the Haitian National Assembly on
August 4, the President of the Republic of Haiti and
the Haitian Minister of Finance laid before that body the
course of the American Financial Adviser which had made
it impossible to submit to the Assembly accounts and
budgets in accordance with the Constitution of Haiti and
the Haiti- American Convention. The statement which
follows is taken from the official Haitian gazette, the
Moniteur of August 7.
MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT
Gentlemen of the Council of State : On account of unforeseen
circumstances it has not been possible for the Government of
39
the Republic to present to you in the course of the session of
your high assembly which closes today (August 4) the general
accounts of the receipts and expenditures for 1918-1919 and
the budget for 1920-1921, in accordance with the Constitution,
It is certainly an exceptional case, the gravity of which will
not escape you. You will learn the full details from the report
which the Secretary of Finance and Commerce will submit to
you, in which it will be shown that the responsibility for it does
not fall on the Executive Power. .
In the life of every people there come moments when it must
know how to be resigned and to suffer. Are we facing one of
those moments? The attitude of the Haitian people, calm and
dignified, persuades me that, marching closely with the Gov
ernment of the Republic, there is no suffering which it is not
disposed to undergo to safeguard and secure the triumph of its
rights. DARTIGUENAVE
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF FINANCE AND COMMERCE
Gentlemen of the Council of State: Article 116 of the Con
stitution prescribes in its first paragraph: "The general ac
counts and the budgets prescribed by the preceding article must
be submitted to the legislative body by the Secretary of Finance
not later than eight days after the opening of the legislative
session."
And Article 2 of the American-Haitian Convention of Sep
tember 16, 1915, stipulates in its second paragraph : "The Presi
dent of Haiti shall appoint, on the nomination of the President
of the United States, a Financial Adviser, who shall be a civil
servant attached to the Ministry of Finance, to whom the Secre
tary shall lend effective aid in the prosecution of his work.
The Financial Adviser shall work out a system of public ac
counting, shall aid in increasing the revenues and in their
adjustment to expenditures. . . .
Since February of this year (1920) the secretaries of the
various departments, in order to conform to the letter of Article
116 of the Constitution, and to assure continuity of public ser
vice in the matter of receipts and expenditures, set to work
at the preparation of the budgets for their departments for
1920-21.
By a dispatch dated March 22, 1920, the Department of
Finance sent the draft budgets to Mr. A. J. Maumus, Acting
Financial Adviser, for preliminary study by that official. But
the Acting Adviser replied to the Department by a letter, of
March 29: "I suggest that, in view of the early return of Mr.
John Mcllhenny, the Financial Adviser, measures be taken to
postpone all discussion regarding the said draft budgets be-
40
tween the different departments and the Office [of the Financial
Adviser] to permit him to take part in the discussions."
Nevertheless, the regular session was opened on the consti
tutional date, Monday, April 5, 1920. Mr. John Mcllhenny,
the titular Financial Adviser, absent in the United States since
October, 1919, on a financial mission for the Government, pro
longed his stay in America, detained no doubt by the insur
mountable difficulties in the accomplishment of his mission (the
placing of a Haitian loan on the New York market). Since
on the one hand the Adviser could not overcome these difficul
ties, and on the other hand his presence at Port-au-Prince was
absolutely necessary for the preparation of the budget in con
formity with the Constitution and the Haitian-American Con
vention, the Government deemed it essential to ask him to re
turn to Port-au-Prince for that purpose. The Government in
so doing secured the good offices of the American Legation, and
Mr. Mcllhenny returned from .the United States about the first
of June. The Legislature had already been in session almost
two months.
About June 15 the Adviser began the study of the budget
with the secretaries. The conferences lasted about twelve days,
and in that time, after courteous discussions, after some cuts,
modifications, and additions, plans for the following budgets
were agreed upon:
1. Ways and Means
2. Foreign Relations
3. Finance and Commerce
4. Interior
On Monday, July 12, at 3.30, the hour agreed upon between
the ministers and the Adviser, the ministers met to continue
the study of the budget which they wanted to finish quickly
. Between 4 and 4:30 the Secretary of Finance received
a letter from the Adviser which reads as follows:
"I find myself obliged to stop all study of the budget until
certain affairs of considerable importance for the welfare of the
country shall have been finally settled according to the recom
mendations made by me to the Haitian Government.
"Please accept, Mr. Secretary, the assurance of my highest
consideration, JOHN MC!LHENNY"
Such an unanticipated and unjustifiable decision on the part
of Mr. Mcllhenny, an official attached to the Ministry of
Finance, caused the whole Government profound surprise and
warranted dissatisfaction. . . .
On July 13 the Department of Finance replied to the Finan
cial Adviser as follows:
"I beg to acknowledge your letter of July 12, in which you
say, 'I find myself obliged, etc. . . .'•
41
"In taking note of this declaration, the importance and gravity
of which certainly cannot escape you, I can only regret in the
name of the Government:
"1. That you omitted to tell me with the precision which such
an emergency demands what are the affairs of an importance
so considerable for the welfare of the country and the settle
ment of which, according to the recommendations made by you,
is of such great moment that you can subordinate to that set
tlement the continuation of the work on the budget?
"2. That you have taken such a serious step without consid
ering that in so doing you have divested yourself of one of the
essential functions which devolves upon you as Financial Ad
viser attached to the Department of Finance.
"The preparation of the budget of the state constitutes one
of the principal obligations of those intrusted with it by law,
because the very life of the nation depends upon its elabora
tion. The Legislature has been in session since April 5 last.
By the Constitution the draft budgets and the general accounts
should be submitted to the legislative body within eight days
after the opening of the session, that is to say by April 13.
The draft budgets were sent to your office on March 22.
"By reason of your absence from the country, the examina
tion of these drafts was postponed, the acting Financial Ad
viser not being willing to shoulder the responsibility; we refer
you to his letters of March 29 and of April 17 and 24. Finally
. . . you came back to Port-au-Prince, and after some two
weeks, you began with the secretaries to study the draft budget's.
"The Government therefore experiences a very disagreeable
surprise on reading your letter of July 12. It becomes my
duty to inform you of that disagreeable surprise, to formulate
the legal reservations in the case, and to inform you finally that
you bear the sole responsibility for the failure to present the
budget in due time.
"FLEURY FEQUIERE, Secretary of Finance"
On July 19, Mr. Bailly-Blanchard, the American Minister,
placed in the hands of the President of the Republic a memo
randum emanating from Mr. Mcllhenny, in which the latter
formulates against the Government complaints sufficient, ac
cording to him, to explain and justify the discontinuance of the
preparation of the budget, announced in his letter of July 12.
Memorandum of Mr. Mcllhenny
I had instructions from the Department of State of the United
States just before my departure for Haiti, in a passage of a
letter of May 20, to declare to the Haitian Government that it
was necessary to give its immediate and formal approval:
42
1. To a modification of the Bank Contract agreed upon by
the Department of State and the National City Bank of New
York.
2. To the transfer of the National Bank of the Republic of
Haiti to a new bank registered under the laws of Haiti to be
known as the National Bank of the Republic of Haiti.
3. To the execution of Article 15 of the Contract of With
drawal, prohibiting the importation and exportation of non-
Haitian money, except that which might be necessary for the
needs of commerce in the opinion of the Financial Adviser.
4. To the immediate vote of a territorial law which has been
submitted to the Department of State of the United States and
which has its approval.
On my arrival in Haiti I visited the President with the Ameri
can Minister and learned that the modifications of the bank con
tract and the transfer of the bank had been agreed to and the only
reason why the measure had not been made official was because
the National City Bank and the National Bank of Haiti had
not yet presented to the Government their full powers. He
declared that the Government did not agree to the publication of
a decree executing the Contract of Withdrawal because it did
not consider that the economic condition of the country justified
it at that time. To which I replied that the Government of the
United States expected the execution of Article 15 of the Con
tract of Withdrawal as a direct and solemn engagement of the
Haitian Government, to which it was a party, and I had in
structions to insist upon its being put into execution at
once. . . .
The Counter Memoir
To this memorandum the Executive Authority replied by a
counter memoir which read in part as follows:
"The modifications proposed by the Department of
State [of the United States] to the bank contract, studied by
the Haitian Government, gave rise to counter propositions on
the part of the latter, which the Department of State would not
accept. The Haitian Government then accepted these modifica
tions in nine articles in the form in which they had been con
cluded and signed at Washington, on Friday, February 6, 1920,
by the Financial Adviser, the Haitian Minister, and the
[Haitian] Secretary of Finance. But when Messrs. Scarpa and
Williams, representing respectively and officially the National
Bank of Haiti and the National City Bank of New York, came
before the Secretary of Finance for his signature to the papers
relative to the transfer of the National Bank of Haiti to the
National City Bank of New York, the Secretary of Finance
experienced a disagreeable surprise in finding out that to Ar
ticle 9 of the document signed at Washington, February 6,
1920, and closed as stated above, there had been added an
43
amendment bearing on the prohibition of non-Haitian money.
The Secretary could only decline the responsibility of this added
paragraph of which he had not the slightest knowledge and
which consequently had not been submitted to the Government
for its agreement. It is for this reason alone that the agree
ment is not signed up to this time The Government does not
even yet know who was the author of this addition to the
document to which its consent had never been asked."
Today, gentlemen, you have come to the end of the regular
session for this year. Four months have run by without the
Government being able to present to you the budget for 1920-
1921. . . . Such are the facts, in brief, that have marked
our relations recently with Mr. Mcllhenny. . . .
FLEURY FEQUIERE, Secretary of Finance
The Businessmen's Protest
THE protest printed below, against Article 15 of the Con
tract of Withdrawal, was sent to the Haitian Secretary
of Finance on July 30.
The undersigned bankers, merchants, and representatives of
the various branches of the financial and commercial activities
in Haiti have the honor to submit to the high appreciation of
the Secretary of State for Finance the following consideration:
They have been advised from certain sources that pressing
recommendations have been made to the Government of Haiti.
1. That a law be immediately voted by which would be pro
hibited the importation or exportation of all money not Haitian,
except that quantity of foreign money which, in the opinion of
the Financial Adviser, would be sufficient for the needs of com
merce.
2. That in the charter of the Banque Nationale de la Re-
publique d'Haiti there be inserted an article giving power to the
Financial Adviser together with the Banque Nationale de la
Republique d'Haiti to take all measures concerning the importa
tion or exportation of non-Haitian monies.
The undersigned declare that the adoption of such a measure,
under whatever form it may be, would be of a nature generally
contrary to the collective interests of the Haitian people and
the industry of Haiti. It would be dangerous to substitute the
will of a single man, however eminent he might be, however
honorable, however infallible, for a natural law which regulates
the movements of the monetary circulation in a country.
It would be more dangerous yet to introduce in the contract of
the Banque Nationale de la Republique d'Haiti a clause which
would assure this establishment a sort of monopoly in the
foreign money market, which constitutes the principal base of
44
the operations of high commerce, when it has already the ex
clusive privilege of emission of bank notes. Such a clause would
make of all other bankers and merchants its humble tributaries,
obeying its law and its caprices.
(Signed) THE ROYAL BANK OF CANADA; AMERICAN FOREIGN
BANKING CORPORATION; HAITIAN AMERICAN SUGAR Co.;
RAPOREL S.S. LINE; P. C. S.; ELECTRIC LIGHT Co.; PANAMA
LINE; ED. ESTEVE & Co.; CLYDE LINE; COMPTOIR COMMERCIAL;
GEBARA & Co.; ALFRED VIEUX; V. G. MAKHLOUF; N. SILVERA;
SIMMONDS FRERES; ROBERTS, BUTTON & Co.; WEST INDIES TRAD
ING Co.; J. FADOUL & Co.; R. BROUARD; A. DE MATTEIS & Co.;
J. M. RICHARDSON & Co.; COMPTOIR FRANCAIS; H. DEREIX; E.
ROBELIN; F. CHERIEZ; I. J. BIGIO, AND GEO. H. MACFADDEN.
By Order of the American Minister
ORRESPONDENCE regarding the refusal of the
Financial Adviser of Haiti, an American, but an official
of the Haitian Department of Finance, to pay the salaries
for the month of July, 1920, of the President and certain
other officials of the Haitian Republic, revealing that the
action was taken by order of the American Minister to
Haiti, without explanation and without authority in the
Haitian Constitution or in the Haiti-American Convention,
was printed in the Moniteur for August 14.
I.
PoRT-AU7PRiNCE, August 2, 1920.
MR. A. J. MAUMUS, Receiver General of Customs
In accordance with the suggestion made to the Financial
Adviser on July 24, your office began on the morning of July 30
to pay the salaries for that month to the officials and public
employees at Port-au-Prince.
Nevertheless up to this morning, August 2, no checks have
been delivered to His Excellency the President of the Republic,
the secretaries of the various departments, the state councilors,
and the palace interpreter.
In calling your attention to this fact I ask that you will please
inform me of the reasons for it.
FLEURY FEQUIERE, Secretary of Finance.
II.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, August 2, 1920.
To THE SECRETARY OF FINANCE AND COMMERCE
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of
August 2 in which you ask this office to inform you regarding
the reasons for the non-delivery, up to the present time, of the
checks for His Excellency the President of the Republic, for
45
the departmental secretaries, the state councilors, and the
palace interpreter, for the month of July.
In reply this office hastens to inform you that up to the pres
ent time it has not been put in possession of the mandates and
orders regarding these payments.
A. J. MAUMUS, Receiver General.
III.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, August 2, 1920.
To THE FINANCIAL ADVISER
The Department of Finance, informed that checks for His
Excellency the President of the Republic, the departmental
secretaries, the state councilors, and the palace interpreter had
not been delivered up to this morning, August 2, reported the
fact to the Receiver General of Customs asking to be informed
regarding the reasons. The Receiver General replied immedi
ately that the delay was due to his failure to receive the neces
sary mandates and orders. But these papers were sent to you
by the Department of Finance on July 21, and were returned
by the payment service of the Department of the Interior on
July 26, a week ago.
I inclose copies of the note from the Department of Finance
to the Receiver General, and of Mr. Maumus's reply.
I should like to believe that bringing this matter to your
attention would be sufficient to remedy it.
FLEURY FEQUIERE, Secretary of Finance.
IV.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, August 5, 1920.
To THE SECRETARY OF FINANCE AND COMMERCE
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of
August 2, regarding the delay in payment of the salaries of
the President of the Republic, secretaries, and state councilors.
In reply I have the honor to inform you that the payment
of these salaries has been suspended by order of the American
Minister until further orders are received from him.
J. MclLHENNY, Financial Adviser.
V.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, August 10, 1920.
To THE FINANCIAL ADVISER
I acknowledge receipt of your note of August 5 in reply to
mine of August 2 asking information regarding the reasons
for your non-payment of the salaries for last July due to His
Excellency the President of the Republic, the secretaries, and
state councilors, and the palace interpreter.
I note the second paragraph of your letter, in which you
say, "In reply, etc."
I do not know by what authority the American Minister can
have given you such instructions or by what authority you
46
acquiesced. The non-payment of the salaries due the members
of the Government constitutes a confiscation vexatious for them
and for the entire country. It is not the function of this de
partment to judge the motives which led the American Minister
to take so exceptionally serious a step; but it is the opinion
of the Government that the Financial Adviser, a Haitian official,
was not authorized to acquiesce.
FLEURY FEQUIERE, Secretary of Finance.
VI.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, August 5, 1920.
MR. A. BAILLY-BLANCHARD, American Minister
I have the honor to inform Your Excellency that the offices
of the Financial Adviser and of the Receiver General have not
yet delivered the checks for the July salaries of His Excellency
the President of the Republic, of the secretaries, state council
ors, and palace interpreter, although all other officials were
paid on July 30.
The Secretary of Finance wrote to the Receiver General ask
ing information on the subject, and was informed that he had
not received the necessary mandates and orders. The fact of
the non-delivery of the checks and the reply of the Receiver
General were then brought to the attention of the Financial
Adviser, who has not yet replied.
In informing your Legation of this situation, I call the atten
tion of Your Excellency to this new attitude of the Financial
Adviser, a Haitian official, to the President of the Republic and
the other members of the Government, an attitude which is an
insult to the entire nation.
J. BARAU, Secretary of Foreign Affairs.
VII.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, August 6, 1920.
MR. A. BAILLY-BLANCHARD, American Minister
I have the honor to inclose a copy of a note from the Financial
Adviser to the Secretary of Finance, replying to a request for
information regarding the non-payment of checks. .
In his reply the Financial Adviser informs the Department
of Finance that "the payment of these salaries has been sus
pended by order of the American Minister until further orders
are received from him."
My Government protests against this act of violence which is
an attack upon the dignity of the people and Government of
Haiti.
J. BARAU, Secretary of Foreign Affairs.
VIII.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, August 6, 1920.
MR. J. BARAU, Secretary of Foreign Affairs
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Your Excel
lency's note under date of August 5.
47
•
In reply I have to state that the action of the Financial
Adviser therein referred to was taken by direction of this
Legation.
A. BAILLY-BLANCHARD, American Minister.
IX.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, August 7, 1920.
MR. A. BAILLY-BLANCHARD, American Minister
In reply to my letter of August 5 in which I had the honor
to inform Your Excellency of the non-payment of checks, . . .
Your Excellency informs me that it is by direction of the
Legation of the United States that the Financial Adviser acted.
My Government takes note of your declaration.
J. BARAU, Secretary of Foreign Affairs.
The Concession of the National City Bank
SIMULTANEOUSLY with the non-payment of the July
O salaries of the President and other officials of the
Haitian Repuulic, the Haitian Minister of Finance received
from the Financial Adviser, an American, nominally a
Haitian official, but acting under instructions from the
American Government, the following letter urging imme
diate ratification of a modified form of agreement between
the United States Department of State and the National
City Bank of New York. It was widely assumed in Haiti
that this letter supplied the key to the unexplained non
payment of salaries, ordered by Mr. A. Bailly-Blanchard,
the American Minister. The letter was printed in the
Moniteur for August 14.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, August 2, 1920
To THE SECRETARY OF FINANCE
I have the honor to inform you that I have been instructed
by my Government that in view of the continual delay in obtain
ing the consent of the Haitian Government to the transfer to the
new bank of the modified concession as agreed upon between
the Government of the United States and the National City
Bank, the Government of the United States has agreed to let the
operations of the National Bank of the Republic of Haiti con
tinue indefinitely on the French contract at present existing,
without amendment.
I desire urgently to draw your attention to the fact that it
would be most desirable in the interest of the Haitian people
that the Government of Haiti should give its immediate con
sent to the proposed modifications of the contract and to accept
the transfer of the bank rather than see the present contract
continue with its present clauses.
JOHN MCILHENNY, Financial Adviser
48
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